They need to put The Closer to work on this case. She never fails. Seriously, the principle that accidents happening to a weakened man is a homocide by the event that weakened the deceased opens too many doors to abuse by government prosecutors of crimes. Leave that to the Civil System.

They're building a legal edifice that will make every one of us guilty of something. There will be no such thing as innocence before the law. We will retain our "freedom" only by maintaining the good favor of a political benefactor.

This is just one more brick. Maybe the law professors should speak up.

While I agree with the sentiment others here are expressing about prosecutorial overreach, I also have a different take on this case: As a practical matter, it's unrealistic. For an assault that took place but was never investigated with the rigor that a murder case would have had, it's simply unrealistic to presume that anything can be determined at this late date.

There's cold casing, and there's archaeology. This is painfully closer to the last than it is the first.

Interestingly, the US has not yet submitted a formal extradition request to Switzerland after Polanski’s arrest. The Obama administration has until November 25th to do so, or the Swiss will be forced to release Polanski. Over the next five weeks, we will see if the White House is more interested in appeasing its Hollywood backers or enforcing the law.

We better point this out to people, just so the Obama Administration does not forget.